Gutsy developers with a bit of vision could turn offices left vacant by changing work habits into part of the solution to Australia's housing crisis.
Image: Adobe Stock by By schiers_images
There’s an underutilised resource sitting in virtually every Australian town and city that might offer at least part of the solution to the nation’s housing shortage.
Along the way, that solution — too often overlooked in this country — offers a more sustainable and possibly faster way to help revitalise our communities and solve one of the great issues of the decade.
It is simply to convert the vacant pockets of empty offices left in Australian cities as the demands for CBD space have changed in the past few years.
And it might just take developers with a bit of vision and guts to make it work.
The housing shortage remains one of the complex challenges of our time. The federal government has pledged $3.5 billion to try to address it and it sits as a major policy debate in the lead-up to the 2025 election.
Yet Australia continues to build new office towers in major cities, while existing blocks have vacant pockets of empty office suites contributing to the high average vacancy rates of about 15 percent.
While most solutions offered to the housing crisis so far involve focusing on building new homes, that is expensive and clearly is not meeting demand. Often existing underused buildings are well located, close to transport and local amenities, which make them ideal locations for homes.
The overlooked solution
Adapting existing buildings — often commercial or semi-industrial spaces — left underutilised because of changing needs in our cities is not factoring into the housing conversation enough.
The concept of converting existing buildings — ‘adaptive reuse’ — is not new in Australia but much more common overseas.
In the City of London, new ‘retrofit-first’ planning requirements call for demolition to be a last resort, encouraging adaptive reuse. Developers are asked to consider all options.
New uses include homes, but even community clubs, childcare centres, restaurants or creative maker studios and light industry can find these new homes.
Why it’s needed
Opportunities to consider conversion are often caused because a building is simply not needed for its original purpose. It could be sparked by economic downturn, cultural shifts or technological disruptions.
Since 2020, COVID-19 has accelerated and amplified technological changes affecting demand for retail and office buildings. Online shopping and working from home are here to stay and people can now live far further away from commercial centres.
Demand for office space has decreased significantly in Sydney and Melbourne, with vacancy rates remaining high at between 13 percent and 18 percent.
Yet new office towers, which often take up to 10 years from planning to completion, are still being built.
Australian developers with design vision and the courage to have a go, could have a similar impact to companies like Urban Splash who have been working in this space in the UK for the past 30 years.
In the US, Gensler’s tool evaluates office buildings for potential conversion to homes. There are also ideas to use dead retail malls for the living by integrating healthcare or creating assisted living communities.
Adaptive reuse is starting to get more attention in Australia too. There are rooftop extensions to existing buildings by Airspace, and examples by architects Hassell and Cox.
Adelaide City Council is also looking at shop-top dwellings. In Melbourne, one new idea converts sub-urban offices to a vertical aged-care facility.
Despite some saying building regulation acts as a barrier to adapting buildings, there is little evidence to show regulation needs to be reduced. Any reduction comes with risks to safety and construction quality.
What’s needed is guidance for converting several floors to create a mixed-use building, integrating homes into offices and retail carefully to counteract the vacancy pockets spread across cities.
Why old is better than new
New tools to normalise Sustainable Temporary Adaptive Reuse, or STAR, will be launched in April 2025 to address vacant pockets of space in commercial buildings in Australia. The toolkit aims to help owners and developers think differently.
The STAR Toolkit recommends building owners get curious about incorporating more social uses in office buildings to attract and retain existing commercial tenants.
The temporary nature of STAR makes it ideal for times when demand for space is uncertain.
Sustainability is a key benefit of reusing old buildings.
Reuse significantly contributes to reducing carbon and demolition rubble. It even conserves the embodied energy of existing buildings — the energy initially expended in their construction.
Adaptive reuse is also a powerful tool for community urban revitalisation.
By reimagining and repurposing vacant or underutilised spaces, cities can breathe new life into areas that have suffered decline. It obviously revitalises the physical structure but also stimulates economic growth and enhances urban landscapes.
In many cases, adaptive reuse projects serve as catalysts for further development and investment in surrounding areas, attracting new businesses, residents and tourists.
Dr Gill Armstrong is collaborating with researchers at University of Technology Sydney to produce a Sustainable Temporary Adaptive Reuse toolkit in a project funded by a City of Sydney Knowledge Exchange Grant. She also works in Climateworks Centre’s Cities team, leading research and policy projects to decarbonise Australia’s buildings sector.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.